


Grounded

by confundedgryffindor



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: "boy" he's an adult, Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Amusement Parks, Anxiety, Fluff and Angst, Holding Hands, M/M, Meet-Cute, Meet-Ugly, Or More Like, Roller Coasters, a terrified adult, but not in the way you think hah, i think it can be classified as panic attacks as well, no beta we die like men, remus is an anxious boy in this one, tons of swearing, well no based on the prompt i think you can guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 14:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19703035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confundedgryffindor/pseuds/confundedgryffindor
Summary: The rollercoaster in front of him looked terrifying, with loops and fucking death drops and it didn’t matter that it had a lot of fastenings and security measures, Remus was sure he was going to die. It would probably break when he was in the middle of on of the loops, leaving him dangling upside down, and his poor, anxious heart would give out and that would be it. He would be one of those infamous people who died in an amusement park and he couldn’t do anything about it.Based on this prompt Purplechimera sent in the WDS:"We are seated next to each other on a rollercoaster and it turns out I'm terrfied and end up clinging to your hand/arm"





	Grounded

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Purplechimera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purplechimera/gifts).



> THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SHORT AND SWEET AND THEN BOOM ANGSTY HELL. god. i am incapable of writing shorter stuff, apparently. like one would argue that this is short, _but it was supposed to be 500 words, not 1.8k_
> 
> anyways hope you like it (especially purple, who sent this in the wds)

Remus was going to die. He was going to kill Lily, and then die. It didn't matter that he was getting ten pounds, or that it would be — as Lily put it —  _ fun.  _ He was actually going to die. 

The rollercoaster in front of him looked terrifying, with loops and fucking death drops and it didn’t matter that it had a lot of fastenings and security measures, Remus was sure he was going to die. It would probably break when he was in the middle of on of the loops, leaving him dangling upside down, and his poor, anxious heart would give out and that would be it. He would be one of those infamous people who died in an amusement park and he couldn’t do anything about it. 

Remus considered just escaping, running off before he was getting fastened in the _fucking_ _rollercoaster of death,_ but he was in the front of the line, about to go on the next ride and Lily would be so disappointed if he didn’t do it. So he remained where he was, hands shaking and breath coming in short breaths, and just resigned to the fact that this was it. 

“May I see your band?” The girl in front of him looked younger than he was, and Remus wondered if she could actually keep him safe in the rollercoaster of death as he held up his wrist, showing the band he got at the entrance of the amusement park. She smiled and gestured for him to go out on the platform where the little cart would arrive in only a few minutes. 

_ This was it.  _ No turning back. 

Remus winced at the screams coming from somewhere on the ride, and he honestly couldn’t tell if they were delighted or terrified screams. Maybe both. Maybe it was a  _ someone fucking died _ -scream. He tried to take a few breaths in an attempt to calm himself, but his throat was closing up and he was going on autopilot, so terrified of the goddamn rollercoaster. If Lily was with him she would’ve told him that it was nothing to worry about, that it would be fine and the rollercoaster of death was actually the rollercoaster of  _ fun.  _ But the bet they’d made was that he was going on the rollercoaster  _ alone,  _ and if he survived he would get ten pounds and Lily’s star win from the betting wheel they’d been at earlier (a twenty pound chocolate bar, which he  _ really  _ couldn’t say no to).

The same girl who he’d showed his band to walked up to him and gave his shoulder a light tap. Remus flinched. 

“Are you alright, sir?” she asked.

“Me?” Remus said. His voice was shaking as much as his hands and he couldn’t really breathe. “Oh yeah, I’m fine. Spectacular. This is… This is great. I’m great.”

The girl frowned at him, but nodded slowly as she took a step back. Remus cursed himself for being so  _ fucking _ weird, but he couldn’t think straight, he couldn’t breathe because  _ he was going to die.  _ He flinched again when the cart full of people stopped right in front of him with a loud clatter, and the handles that kept them sitting in the cart dislocated and lifted, slowly, slowly. The people were laughing as they stepped out, their hair tangled and their faces pale, but they were  _ fucking laughing.  _ Remus almost took another step back, he almost just ran away, but for some reason, he stepped forward and clambered into the cart. He brought down the handle-slash-belt-thing himself, gripping it tightly to keep his hands from shaking. He felt how someone clambered into the seat next to him, but he didn’t care. Remus kept his eyes forward, staring at the back of someone’s head, gripping the handle so hard that his hands went white and numb.

He sat silent, barely breathing, only thinking about how he was inevitably going to die, and then the cart jerked to a start and Remus was sure he was about to start crying. He didn’t like heights, he didn’t like it when something went too fast and he definitely didn’t like being upside down and  _ fucking shit,  _ he could feel the tears stinging behind his eyelids. He squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to cry on a goddamn rollercoaster. He was twenty-fucking-one he should be able to handle this, but he couldn’t and the tears were stinging and his hands were shaking and —

“Keep your eyes open, mate.” The voice was gentle, right beside him, and Remus figured it was the person who’d say down beside him. He shook his head and felt how they went faster and faster. 

“No. No no no no, I want to get off. Fuckfuckfuck, I can’t.” Remus was gasping, his eyes still squeezed shut as they started going slower, probably going up a hill. 

“Hey, hey,” the person next to him said. “It’s okay, but it’s going to feel worse with your eyes shut.”

“ _ Fucking shit.  _ That’s not very comforting.” The person next to him laughed.

“Probably not,” he said. “Look, you’re going to break your hand—“ Remus felt how a cold hand touched his own— “Hold onto mine instead, yeah? And try looking at me. It’s gonna be fine.”

Remus slowly turned his head, then opened his eyes and found himself staring right into a pair of swirling grey irises. He was still gasping, but somehow, it felt better when he was looking at someone else. They were still going slowly, slowly and Remus was just waiting for the drops and the loops. 

“I’m going to break your hand if I hold it,” Remus forced out. 

“It’s okay, I barely have any nerves in this hand anyways.” Remus frowned, but grabbed his cold hand anyways, squeezing it with his own as the cart suddenly stopped. Remus looked around to see why they were standing still, and found that they were standing at the top of the hill, right in front of a large drop. He threw his head back and stared up instead, squeezing a  _ fucking  _ stranger’s hand. 

“Oh my fucking god, holy  _ shit  _ I’m going to die.”

“Hey no, it’s alright.” Remus felt another equally as cold hand on his jaw, gently coaxing his head down a little. “Just keep your eyes on me, and try not to scream in my ear, alright?”

Remus let out a nervous chuckle and nodded, then brought their hands closer to his chest to just keep something there, to keep him grounded. He stared at the person in front of him, taking in his face instead of the treetops and rooftops of large buildings. His grey, swirling eyes, sharp and slightly pointy nose, cheekbones and sharp jawline. Black hair tied in a bun, with small wisps of hair sticking out around the hairline and suddenly his heart was racing for  _ other reasons.  _

They started going slowly again, and suddenly they were going downwards, faster and faster and Remus couldn’t scream even though he wanted to. It felt as though his insides were tied together in a knot in the pit of his stomach and he just wanted to squeeze his eyes shut and scream as loud as he could, but he kept staring at the stranger, trying to ground himself.

Suddenly they were upside down, and Remus felt how a tear tried to escape, but it only fell down into his eyes again and all he could do was  _ stare.  _ The stranger smiled and said something, his beautifully pink lips forming words but Remus couldn’t hear him over the screams and rushing in his ears. They went upright for a second, and the tears streamed down his cheeks before they were suddenly upside down again and Remus couldn’t breathe, only stare into the stranger’s eyes and hold so tightly onto his hand that he almost felt the bones grinding together. The stranger was smiling encouragingly at him, not even caring that his hand was being crushed in Remus’ grip. 

They went up a hill again, and the tears were streaming down Remus’ face as he forced himself to breathe. He wanted to wipe them off, but his other hand was still grasping the handle tightly and he didn’t dare to let go. 

“It’s okay,” the stranger said. “It’s just this one hill and then it’s over.”

“Oka—“ Remus cut himself off and forced his mouth shut to stop himself from screaming. They were going so fast, too fast. Downwards, faster and faster and Remus just  _ couldn’t.  _ He didn’t want to stay in the goddamn cart, he wanted to get off, he wanted to be on steady ground and he wanted to fucking kill Lily. The stranger put his other hand over Remus’, cold but steady, and suddenly Remus could breathe a little again. 

“It’s okay. It’s gonna be fine.”

The ride started going slower again, slower and slower and suddenly they stopped with the same jerk as earlier on the platform. Remus heard the click of the handles being dislocated again, and he let go of it, but kept his firm grip on the stranger’s hand. He didn’t think he could get out even though he wanted to more than anything, but he couldn’t really feel his legs and he didn’t want to let go of the grounding feeling of the stranger. 

“Come on,” the stranger said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Remus nodded slowly and loosened his grip on the stranger’s hand to get up, and they clambered out of the cart together. Remus’ legs were shaking, but he could finally breathe again. 

“You alright?”

“I— I don’t know,” Remus said. He took a few, rattling deep breaths and wiped his face. 

“Do you need a hug?”

Remus stared down into the stranger’s eyes, preparing to say  _ something,  _ a simple yes, but he couldn’t find his voice, so he just surged forward and wrapped his arms around him, clinging to his jacket and burying his face in his tousled hair. Grounding, safe. The stranger hugged him back, he didn’t laugh at Remus’ childishness or tell him to back off after thirty seconds, he just held him,  _ grounding, safe _ .

“I’m Sirius, by the way,” the stranger said when they pulled apart. Remus let out a laugh. 

“Remus.”

“Look,” Sirius said, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. “Why don’t you add your number, so you’ll have someone to hit up whenever you need a hand to hold.”

Remus flushed when Sirius handed him the phone. “You sure?”

“Absolutely.” Sirius nodded towards his phone. “Go on.”   
Remus swallowed hard and typed in his number, then handed the phone back to Sirius, who winked.  _ Fucking winked.  _ “I look forward to seeing you again, Remus,” he said, then he turned around and left, leaving Remus still shaking a little, his legs weak and breath still slightly rattling.

**Author's Note:**

> WOW isn't sirius one smooth motherfucker
> 
> say hi to me on my tumblr, [ confunded-gryffindor ](https://confunded-gryffindor.tumblr.com/) and to purple, [ purplechimera8](https://purplechimera8.tumblr.com/)


End file.
